The Mindy Project fic: Landing in Turbulence (1/3)
Title: Landing in Turbulence
Pairing: Mindy/Danny
Word Count: 13,200 (total, in 3 parts)
Rating: PG-13
Timeline: Immediately following 1.21, then goes AU (doesn’t have anything to do with the spoilers for the rest of the season)
Summary: Danny lets Christina think that he’s dating Mindy.
Author’s Note: Thanks to princess_george for holding my hand as I dip my toes in a new fandom, and whose awesome ideas are at least partially to blame for how long this turned out to be.
“Dr. C, there’s someone in your office for you. She says she’s your ex-wife!”
Danny’s good mood evaporated in an instant. “Christina?” It couldn’t be. He hadn’t seen her since-
But then she appeared, and it was definitely his Christina. She looked good, but formal and polished, like she always had in the lawyers’ offices-not like the comfy woman who used to cuddle up with him on the couch to watch PBS documentaries. He still had trouble connecting the two-this stiff, refined version who had broken his heart to the warm, familiar woman he’d pictured having his sons.
“Hey, Danny,” she greeted him, sounding disconcertingly more like the latter.
“What are you doing here?” he blurted, suddenly conscious of all the eyes on them. It was one thing to have to see Christina after all these months, out of the blue, when he was unprepared for it. It was another to have to do it front of-he glanced at Mindy, who was looking at him with wide eyes-well, in front of his colleagues.
“Um … do you mind if we-could we talk somewhere?” Christina asked.
“Okay.” The part of him that didn’t want the audience was suddenly battling with the part of him that didn’t want to be alone with her. “Okay. Let’s, uh, let’s go back in my office.”
He followed her in and closed the door, and they stood there awkwardly for a moment, as he got increasingly frustrated. This is what they’d had lawyers for, so they’d never have to talk to each other directly again.
“What are you doing here?” he repeated.
“I’m sorry to just drop by like this,” she said. “You weren’t returning my calls.”
“I was out of town over the weekend,” Danny said stiffly. “I didn’t know you called.”
“Oh … I thought it was because you still hated my guts.”
She looked so vulnerable just then, and there had been a time when a look like that would have made him reach out to her, but Danny refused to let it get to him. He crossed his arms over his chest, letting the words hang in the air. It wasn’t not true.
“Okay. Well, I deserve that, I guess,” she said quietly. “I know I treated you badly, and I’m sorry about what happened. I’m sorry about everything.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, to mask the fact that the old wound was opening up, right in the middle of his chest where his ability to speak was located. This is what she’d come here for, for an apology, after all this time? Yep, this closure thing was for chumps and masochists, all right.
“You look good. The practice looks like it’s doing really well,” she continued, with an uncertain smile. “How are you, Danny? I was worried about you, after everything. I know you didn’t take it well.”
Danny grunted. How was he supposed to have taken it? And how would she even know? It’s not like she was there. She left.
“Yeah, no, I’m great. I’m over it.”
“Really?”
She sounded hopeful, and what was he supposed to say? Whatever would get her out of his office fastest, he supposed.
“Yeah, sure, why not? Time heals all wounds, right?” Actually, time seemed to be really letting him down here. With her standing in front of him again, the hurt and anger seemed as acute as ever. “Yeah, anyway, I’m fine. I’m dating, I’m out there. I’ve moved on.”
“Oh. That’s good, Danny. I’m glad to hear it. Really.”
She looked genuinely relieved. Well, great, just what he’d wanted-to ease her guilty conscience. Not that he wanted her to think he was still pining for her, either. See? A lose-lose situation.
“Anyone in particular?” Christina asked. “Not that it’s any of my business …”
“Anyone …?” Danny was taken aback for a moment, until he realized Christina was taking him literally about the moving on thing. And he had moved on, several times-he didn’t want her to think he hadn’t. “Oh, yeah, there’s someone. She’s, um …”
Suddenly he was blanking on every woman he knew. Eyepatch. Eyepatch wasn’t a name. “Mindy!” he blurted, too loudly. Loud enough that Mindy probably heard her name, if she was still in the lobby area. Panicked, he threw open the door.
There she was, along with Betsy, Jeremy, and Morgan, who all looked like they’d been caught gossiping or eavesdropping or both.
“Doesn’t anyone have work to do?” He glared at them, before catching Mindy’s eye. “Mindy, do you have a second to come in here?”
“Um, sure?” Mindy agreed uncertainly.
When she had joined them, he closed the door, and Mindy gave him a questioning look and then smiled graciously at Christina. “Hi, I’m Dr. Mindy Lahiri. You must be the famous Christina. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Danny looked nervously between the two of them, wondering how this was going to go. If he could just quickly think of a different reason he had called Mindy into the room-
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Christina was saying meanwhile, extending a hand, which Mindy accepted. “I hope this isn’t too awkward.”
“Awkward?”
“You know, ex-wife meeting new girlfriend. I didn’t even know he was seeing anyone, or that I’d be meeting you today. How long have you and Danny been dating?”
Mindy gave Danny a startled look, and he briefly considered throwing her back out of the office. How would that look, though?
“Three months!” he said quickly instead. He moved to put a hand on Mindy’s back but thought better of it and dropped it back down to his side. “She just looks surprised because she doesn’t think I can remember anniversaries. Three months as of yesterday, right, Min?”
He shot her a quick desperate look, hoping she’d just go along. If this one time, she could manage to be actually be helpful instead of making his life more difficult … as it was, she was probably going to give him hell for this later.
“Oh! Yeah, three months! Right,” Mindy said after a slight delay, and Danny gave her a small grateful smile. “Sorry, I’m just a little slow today. It’s because I was up all night … because of all the sex, you know how it is.”
Too much, Danny tried to convey with his eyes.
Mindy made a small questioning gesture with her hands, like what do you want me do?
Maybe he should take it from here. “Yeah, Mindy and me, that’s happening, so. It’s early, but it’s getting kind of serious, three months in, that’s … yeah, that’s pretty serious. Anyway, I’m good, I’ve moved on, as you can see. Now you know.”
There, was that enough closure? Could she possibly go now?
“I’m really happy for you, Danny, and you, Mindy, you seem … great!” Christina said. She seemed flustered-so maybe she wasn’t so fine with him moving on after all. Served her right for leaving him. What did she think was going to happen?
Christina took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m actually relieved because I have some news to share myself, and this makes it a little easier.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny noticed Mindy stepping slightly closer to him. It was almost like she knew something was coming, which was crazy, because he didn’t.
“Paul … you remember Paul, right?” Christina continued, more nervously.
“I remember Paul,” Danny said through gritted teeth. He remembered finding Paul in bed with his wife.
Mindy moved closer still and her hand bumped up against his.
“Paul and I are getting married. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I didn’t want you to hear from someone else.”
Mindy’s fingers wrapped around his, which was good, because he really needed something to squeeze right now. It was like the turbulence, all over again, nausea and everything. He glanced down at her, and she met his eyes, looking worried.
“That’s great news, isn’t it, Danny … hon?”
“Uh-huh,” he managed, numbly. “Great news.” Mindy stroked her thumb against his hand reassuringly, and he was suddenly profoundly grateful she was there right now, humiliating as this was.
As he was floundering for something to say that he wouldn’t regret later, she turned to Christina and started filling in the awkward silence. “April in New York … that’s such a romantic time to get engaged. Unless he proposed on April Fool’s Day. That would be so not funny. He didn’t do that, did he? Are you sure you’re even engaged?”
“No, no, I’m sure,” Christina said, with a small, confused laugh. She looked about just as relieved as he felt that someone in the room was doing the talking.
“That’s good, that’s so wonderful for you.” Mindy exchanged another glance with him. He shrugged helplessly, and she babbled onward. “Have you started planning yet? Where are you registered? I’ve read that it’s good to register at multiple price points. Ivanka Trump, for example, registered at Tiffany’s and Williams-Sonoma.”
“Oh, it’s early, we haven’t really … and I don’t think we’ll register anywhere. It being a second wedding, you know.”
Christina met his eyes for a moment, looking uncomfortable and genuinely apologetic. That was the thing about Christina-she always managed to look like she cared, even when was hurting you. It made it hard to hate her completely, and not being able to hate her made it hard to be okay with this situation.
“Right … right, I feel you on that, that makes sense,” Mindy was saying, but he’d forgotten what she was referring to. “Okay, well, Danny and I have patients, but we’re really happy for you, and glad you stopped by!”
Oh, thank god. Mindy was getting rid of her for him. He knew there was a good reason he had her come in here.
“Of course … I should be going,” Christina said. “It was good to see you, though, Danny. And I’m glad we got to meet, Mindy.”
Danny nodded, and Christina stepped toward the door, but she turned around again before she was fully out.
Now what?
Christina shook her head, looking embarrassed and emotional. “I’m sorry. I just keep thinking this might be the last time I’m ever going to see you, and it still feels so … I can’t think of the word I want. Unfinished, I suppose.”
“Well, the marriage license said we were going to be together for … let’s see if I can remember … oh yeah, forever,” Danny grumbled. “So, yeah, I’d say that was unfinished.”
Seriously, if she said the word closure, he might have to call security. They weren’t in a storybook. They weren’t going to get a neat little ending, all wrapped in a bow.
“Actually … this is probably really weird, and you can say no, but I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d want to get some dinner sometime?” Christina glanced awkwardly at Mindy, as if she’d just remembered she was there too. “Mindy too, of course. The four of us, maybe!”
“Why?” Danny asked, rocking up onto his toes and then back down again. “Why would we do that?”
Christina shrugged self-consciously. “I know we didn’t leave on the best of terms … but now Paul and I are trying to start a new life together, and it’s difficult with that ugliness hanging over us over how we started. Maybe it would be good for us if we could all sit down over a friendly dinner and leave the past behind. Make a clean break. Is that a terrible idea?”
For a moment, all Danny could do was gape at her. Yes, that was a terrible idea.
“Closure!” Mindy exclaimed excitedly, and he wondered momentarily if he could get security to throw her out of the building. He tried to shake his head at her, but she wasn’t paying attention. “Danny and I were just talking about that a few days ago, how it’s good to have closure so that you can forgive and accept and move forward and all that. I think that would be a great idea. We’d love to come.”
“You would … really?” Christina asked, sounding skeptical even though this was her idea.
“Sure, we can do that, right, Danny?” Before he could protest, she was opening the door and walking Christina out, and he hurried to catch up with them before Mindy could agree to anything stupid. “Do you know that pizza place that Danny likes, not the one where you guys met and carved your names on the table, but the other one, the really nice one?”
Just as he was opening his mouth to nip this thing in the bud, the memory overwhelmed him: a much younger Christina, with long hair and a tight tank top that showed off the tattoo she had on her upper back, tracing her fingers over the letters he’d carved on the tabletop. She had a bit of tomato sauce on the corner of her lip, which he’d used as an excuse to kiss her.
“I think I know which one you’re talking about,” Christina was saying, turning around to shoot Danny a questioning look.
“How about tomorrow, say, 8?” Mindy suggested.
“I think that works for us,” Christina said. “If that’s really okay …”
“Sure, it’s fine. Don’t mind, Danny. He’s just jet-lagged.”
They had reached the elevator door. Mindy pressed the button, and the door opened immediately.
Looking slightly shell-shocked, Christina stepped onto the elevator. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you then?”
“Great. Bye!” Mindy said, almost gleefully.
Danny stared after his ex-wife as the doors shut, realizing too late what had just happened.
“She’s pretty,” Mindy commented. “Taller than I thought she would be.”
Danny glared at her, his mouth open, then grabbed her arm and pulled her back into his office. All of his frustration was still bubbling near the surface, and he was finally alone with someone who didn’t leave him too tongue-tied to fully express it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded as soon as he shut the door.
“God, Danny, could you be a little more grateful? I’m helping you out. I’m playing your smart, sexy doctor girlfriend so that you can rub your success in your engaged ex-wife’s face. This was your idea.”
“This wasn’t my idea.”
She looked at him disbelievingly. “They why did you tell her I was your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. I accidentally told her I’d moved on with someone, and she wanted to know who, and yours was the first name I thought of. Probably because I just talked to you.”
He really hoped she wasn’t going to read too much into that.
“You didn’t think of Alex first? You guys just broke up, like, two weeks ago.”
He glared at her again. “This was not supposed to be an ongoing arrangement or anything. We are not going to dinner with them. No way.”
“Are you kidding me? She’s never going to believe I’m your girlfriend based on that performance. Give me an evening. I’ll bring my A game. She’ll never know what hit her.”
“No! Mindy, this isn’t some low-rent movie where we play dress-up and the music swells and someone falls over.”
“Okay, you’re going to have to narrow it down to something more specific. I have no idea what movie you’re talking about from that description.”
“Mindy. This is my life.”
“And it’s going really well.” Infuriatingly, she put her hand on her hip, and he resisted the urge to physically put it somewhere else. “Anyway, you can’t back out. You told her I was your girlfriend, and I told her we’d be there. Girlfriend-made commitments are binding.”
“Luckily for us, she doesn’t follow Mindy logic. We’ll cancel. I’ll tell her you forgot … we have dinner plans with your parents that night or something.”
“My parents live in Concord.”
“She doesn’t know that. Or, my mom, then.”
“I get to meet your mom?” Mindy seemed oddly interested in that idea. He couldn’t even imagine how that would go, the image was so absurd.
“No. That’s what I’m going to tell her.”
“She’ll know something’s up.”
“She’ll know I don’t want to have dinner with her. Which I don’t.”
“Or, she’ll know you made up a girlfriend so that you would look like you’re over her, when you’re not.”
Danny sighed and rapped his knuckles on his desk in frustration. She was right, it would look like that. Christina was probably already suspicious-he and Mindy hardly made a convincing couple-and cancelling now would just confirm those suspicions. He’d look pathetic. And she’d feel bad about it-worse, she’d feel sorry for him-and he hated that idea more than anything.
He put his hands in his hair and made a face.
“Fine, I’ll think about it. But you’re going to pay for this.”
“I’m the one doing you a favor,” she reminded him.
“If this is what being your friend means, I wouldn’t want to be your enemy.”
She punched him playfully in the arm. “It’ll be good. You’ll see. You’ll feel better after this.”
Somehow, he seriously doubted that.
“Did you feel better after seeing Josh in Sante Fe?”
Mindy tilted her head to one side, considering. “You know, I did. Because I found out how awful he really was, and I realized I’m better off without him, even if he hadn’t had another girlfriend.”
“But you already knew that,” Danny pointed out. “And anyway, that was different. He was addicted to cocaine.”
“You’re right,” she said sympathetically. “They can’t all be drug addicts.”
He actually laughed a little at that.
“Okay, well, we really do have patients.” She put her hand on his arm. “You going to be okay, Danny?”
He looked down at his arm where her hand was-it was the first time she’d touched him since the airplane, or rather, the first time he hadn’t been distracted by Christina-and it took him a moment after he opened his mouth for anything to come out. “Yeah … um, yeah. I’m okay.”
“Good.” She squeezed gently before letting go, then turned to open the door. He stared after her, involuntarily touching the place where her hand had been, and wondering what he had gotten himself into.
***
Danny avoided his coworkers as much as possible over the next two days, spending more time than strictly necessary with his eyes closed and his stethoscope in his ears. There was something about the heartbeats of fetuses-quick and steady and full of potential-and it calmed him, even as it reminded him of what he didn’t have.
In between, he played the Tunnel of Love and Blood Brothers albums on repeat instead of sleeping. By the time he reached Mindy’s door on Tuesday night, he was both keyed up and exhausted.
As he waited for Mindy to open up, he leaned against the doorframe, still having a silent argument with himself over whether he should or shouldn’t go through with this tonight. Basically, he shouldn’t-that was obvious. But somehow, he was here anyway.
Mindy opened her door finally, her hair in giant rollers.
“You’re way early,” she said accusingly. “We have half an hour!”
“I was feeling antsy,” Danny said, moving past her into her apartment. “And I had to see what you’re wearing.”
He hadn’t actually given that any thought, but he didn’t want to admit he was here just because he didn’t want to pace alone in his apartment any longer.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
Her dress had polka dots and a short skirt that flared out at the hips.
“Nothing,” Danny said, lingering on the view of her legs for a moment. “It’s not too bad, actually.”
“Thanks for the ringing endorsement,” she said. “It’s a good thing you rushed over here to save me from embarrassing myself.”
“It’s fine. I like it.” He shrugged sheepishly, choosing to focus on this inconsequential detail instead of talking about anything that mattered. “Do you have anything else?”
“I thought you said you liked it,” she said.
“I do, but tonight you’re playing a part. The ‘smart, sexy doctor girlfriend,’ remember? Polka dots aren’t going to cut it.” He started walking to her closet, and she followed him.
“You have a surprising interest in fashion for a guy who’s never seen Project Runway,” she commented as he flipped through her dresses.
“I just know what looks good on a woman. This.” He pulled out a low-cut red dress that would hug her curves and still show off her legs. “You should wear this.”
She took the hanger from him. “Okay, turn around.”
He faced away from her, hearing the swish of fabric as she took one dress off and put the other one on. It occurred to him this wasn’t the first time he’d been in her closet. He hadn’t been in any other women’s closets since Christina, and he hadn’t really spent much time in hers either. It was certainly smaller than this one.
“We should prepare, maybe,” he said.
“Prepare?”
Hearing the sound of a zipper, he turned around in time to help her zip it up to the top. He smoothed the fabric across her shoulders and snatched his hands away as she turned around.
For a moment, he forgot what he’d been saying.
“Better?” she asked.
“You look great. Aside from the rollers, but I assume you have a plan there.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Thank you, Danny. Now what do you think we should do to prepare?”
“Oh. Since we have a little time, I was thinking maybe we should just make sure we know details that people in relationships would know.” Mindy nodded as she moved out of the closet, and he followed her out to the bathroom and stood in the hallway while she started messing with her hair. “It’s probably most important that you know things about me, because she’ll know those things.”
“Okay. Quiz me,” Mindy said, as she took the rollers out. The long black hair fell down her back, and it wasn’t so much curly as just … really pretty looking.
“Oh, okay. My mom’s name-”
“Is Alice. She was a hotel maid, now retired, and your brother’s Richie. He’s a carpenter. Next.”
“Right.” Danny was momentarily surprised she remembered all that. “And your brother’s name is Rishi, the rapper/Harvard student.”
“You don’t get points for knowing that. You met him.”
“This isn’t about points,” he said, although he wondered fleetingly if they were keeping score, who would win. “Do I know your parents’ names?”
“Shreya and Rahul. They’re both doctors.”
“Shree-ah and Ra-hool,” he repeated carefully, even though he doubted that was going to come up. It seemed good to know. “Okay, um … food preferences. We’ll be at a restaurant, so that might be important.”
“Easy. You like thick bread, salty meats, cheeses that don’t have funny names. Onions and peppers, yes. Mushrooms, no.” He met her eyes in the mirror. “What? You order a lot of sandwiches to the office.”
“It’s almost like we’re actually dating,” he joked.
“Or like we’re actually friends,” she tossed back, and there was something about the casual way she said it that made him feel momentarily better-still like he was going into battle, but with an ally. Of sorts.
She put her lipstick on and puckered her lips briefly in the mirror. “Okay, almost ready.”
Mindy ducked into her closet again and brought out a couple shoeboxes. First she put on a very sexy but completely ridiculous pair, which put her almost at the same level as him. Standing in the hallway next to him, she looked at their reflection in the bathroom mirror, considering.
“No, you’re not tall enough,” she said, discarding them and sliding on the lower-heeled contents of the other box. She glanced at their reflection again. “Perfect.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly.
“I just like to be shorter than my dates. It makes me feel like the girl.”
“The fact that you’re the one in heels doesn’t make you feel like the girl? This isn’t even a real date.”
“The shoes don’t know that, though.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“These will be easier to walk in anyway.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Danny muttered, wandering away into her kitchen. He opened the cupboard where she kept the liquor and took out a bottle, pouring himself a shot.
“You going to be okay?” Mindy asked, making her concerned face again. He’d been getting that a lot since Christina had showed up the day before.
He held up the bottle. “Liquid courage. So what made you think it was a good idea to pick one of my favorite restaurants?”
She furrowed her brow. “Oh … I just thought you’d want to be somewhere you’re comfortable. Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“It’s too late. They’re meeting us.” Danny shook his head and took another gulp. “But now I won’t be able to eat there without thinking of this night. There’ll be associations.”
“Oh. Ohhh. I should have thought of that. I’ll fix it, okay? Hold on.” She whipped out her phone and did something.
“What did you just do?”
“I fixed it. I just texted Christina and told her I meant the Italian place in the 300th block, not the 400th.”
“How do you even have Christina’s number?”
She grinned at him. “From your phone. Girlfriend privileges.”
“Hey. Don’t think you can get away with that now.”
She shrugged her shoulders, smirking cutely. For some reason that made him think of her actual boyfriend.
“So, what does Casey think about this, us going out tonight? What’d you tell him?”
“I told him the truth. He’s fine with it. He doesn’t get jealous, remember? Something about God and faith.”
“Sounds nice,” Danny mumbled. He leaned against the counter, the liquor making him feel pensive. “So you think I might need some closure about Christina,” he said.
Mindy took the bottle from his hand and put it away. She looked at him for a moment, her smirk gone. “You need something, right?” she said quietly, leaning against the counter next to him. “It’s been a while, and it seems like you might not be completely over her, is all.”
Danny nodded his head slowly, folding his arms. “I just don’t think about her mostly, and that seems to work.”
“Yeah, like it worked with Alex?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to go there? You’re going to bring up Alex?”
“No, you’re right. Sorry,” she said, wincing.
He thought for a moment. “I suppose you think if I were over Christina, I wouldn’t have kept her a secret from Alex. But you’re wrong. Because I wasn’t keeping her a secret. It just never came up.”
“Oh, you never had a conversation about past relationships, or she never wondered why a handsome doctor was still single in his 40s?”
“I’m in my 30s,” he corrected her, exasperated.
“Late 30s.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Okay, maybe, I don’t know … there were times when it could have come up.”
“So you’re saying I’m right.”
“No, I’m saying … I don’t know.” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think she liked me much anyway.”
“Of course she liked you. She just didn’t like that you lied to her.”
“I think she liked my apartment,” he mumbled, glancing at his watch. “Anyway, if we’re doing this, we’d better get going.”
Mindy didn’t immediately move, and he turned his head to find her watching him intently. “Are we doing this?”
She was actually asking. Oh, suddenly he had a choice?
Danny shrugged and made his way to the door, already having resigned himself. And maybe she was right, how should he know? He’d been thinking about this for almost two days straight, and he had no idea.
Mindy followed him, and he held up her coat for her before shrugging into his own jacket, then held the door open as she walked through. She raised her eyebrows at him, impressed, and he shrugged-if they were going to play at being in a relationship, they might as well start practicing now.
“I think this’ll be good. You’ll see,” Mindy said once they were outside, but with a lack of bravado this time, and it didn’t do much to inspire confidence in him about what they were doing. But when they reached the sidewalk she reached out and squeezed his hand briefly in friendly encouragement, and it was nice.
When she withdrew the contact almost as quickly as she’d offered it, he reached for her hand back and held onto it, defiantly. She glanced at him sideways, and he thought he noticed a slight catch in her breathe, but she didn’t do anything to take it away again.
“Turbulence,” he mumbled by way of explanation, and she nodded, accepting that.
It was the third time in as many days that he and Mindy had held hands-he wondered what Casey would think if he knew that. But there was something reassuring and comfortable about it, and he didn’t want to give it too much thought.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Mindy cleared her throat. “So this Paul guy. You’ve met him before?”
“Met is putting kind of a positive spin on it,” Danny said.
She glanced at him curiously. “How do you know him?”
He grunted. “I know him as the guy who broke up my marriage.”
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared. “Danny! This is the guy she cheated on you with while you were married?”
He nodded.
“And now she’s marrying him?” It seemed like a rhetorical question, so he just stood there. “Scumbag,” she said, putting her hand on her hip, but for once the disapproval it indicated didn’t seem to be directed at him. “How did you find out?”
“I walked in on them.”
She whipped out her phone again, and he put a hand on her arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m pulling the plug on this, Danny. I’ll say you have an emergency C-section. That’s the advantage of being a doctor-you get to get out of stuff like this.”
“You thought this was a good idea,” he pointed out.
“That was before I knew this! Why didn’t you ever say anything? How do I know what kind of bread you like, but I don’t know this?”
“I guess I don’t usually put information about who slept with my wife on my sandwich order.”
“We’re friends, Danny, so you have to tell me stuff now. Anyway, we can’t have a friendly dinner with the scumbag who broke up your marriage. What was I thinking? I should never have agreed to this without talking to you first.” She lowered her voice, almost talking to herself now. “Casey’s right, I really can be thoughtless and self-involved sometimes.”
Danny flinched. “Casey sounds like he might be a self-righteous prick. You’re trying to help a friend. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“He is sometimes. But he’s a funny, charming self-righteous prick, and I find that really confusing.”
Danny nodded. “I get that.”
She held up the phone. “It’s up to you. Say the word, and I’ll cancel.”
Danny made a face, turning half away from her. “She’ll know something’s up, that I chickened out or something. She’s smart like that. Perceptive.”
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what she thinks, Danny.”
That was true. And yet … one of the worst things about what had happened was that he’d never gotten to talk to her-never gotten to find out what had happened. They had all these plans, and she’d just thrown them away, suddenly and with no explanation. Why would she do that to him? Why for this guy? Who even was this woman he’d been married to all those years?
If he walked away now, he’d never know. He needed to go-not for closure, closure was for wimps and Don Henley fans-just to know.
He couldn’t believe he was going to say this.
“I think we should do it. I think … I don’t know, maybe you were right. I should do this.”
He just hoped she wasn’t going to rub it in his face.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah … I mean, no I’m not sure. But yeah.”
They started walking again, and this time she was the one who reached for his hand first.
As they approached the pizza place, Mindy suddenly stopped and tugged his arm toward her. “Quick, I want you to put your hand on my hip and lean down toward me. Whisper something in my ear.”
“Why, what’s happening?”
“I’m doing you a favor, silly.”
Confused, he did as she said and leaned in close to her ear. “Are they nearby or something?”
“I can see them coming toward us,” she murmured. “Look like you’re really into me.” She giggled suddenly, tossing her head back like he’d just said something really funny or dirty or something. He did his best not to turn around and look.
“Danny,” she said more loudly, in an exaggerated sing-songy voice. Then she pulled him by the edges of his coat so they were nose to nose and kissed him flirtatiously on the cheek. His fingers unconsciously flew up to the spot, and she made a show of wiping away her lipstick with her thumb.
“You okay?” she asked more quietly, right next to his ear. He nodded, not sure yet if he should be annoyed at her for making him more flustered than ever, or grateful for the distraction.
Mindy pretended to notice their dinner companions for the first time, and he turned around to face them. “There they are! Hello again, Christina, it’s good to see you. And you must be Paul.”
She sounded perfectly friendly to the untrained ear, but Danny was pretty sure he could detect an edge of iciness to her tone that hadn’t been there the previous morning. She squeezed his hand, and he smiled at her in spite of everything, once again surprised at how glad he was that she was there. Not that he’d be in this situation at all without her, but still.
Christina smiled uncertainly, looking nervously between Danny and Paul.
Danny sized up the other man. He was taller, which was annoying, but he had glasses that didn’t even look like they were prescription. It was hard to take a guy like that seriously.
Paul extended his hand to Danny. “Good to see you again, Danny,” he said stiffly.
Danny shook the offered hand. “Good to see you clothed this time, Paul.”
Christina and Paul exchanged an uncomfortable glance. “Shall we go in?” Paul said.
“After you,” Danny said mock-graciously.
He held the door for Mindy, who looked like she was trying not to giggle behind her hand. Her eyes flashed with approval, and he smiled at her.
Maybe this was going to be okay. This was the thing he had feared the most, and it was in progress, and it was okay so far.
Two minutes in.
Continue to Part 2
Pairing: Mindy/Danny
Word Count: 13,200 (total, in 3 parts)
Rating: PG-13
Timeline: Immediately following 1.21, then goes AU (doesn’t have anything to do with the spoilers for the rest of the season)
Summary: Danny lets Christina think that he’s dating Mindy.
Author’s Note: Thanks to princess_george for holding my hand as I dip my toes in a new fandom, and whose awesome ideas are at least partially to blame for how long this turned out to be.
“Dr. C, there’s someone in your office for you. She says she’s your ex-wife!”
Danny’s good mood evaporated in an instant. “Christina?” It couldn’t be. He hadn’t seen her since-
But then she appeared, and it was definitely his Christina. She looked good, but formal and polished, like she always had in the lawyers’ offices-not like the comfy woman who used to cuddle up with him on the couch to watch PBS documentaries. He still had trouble connecting the two-this stiff, refined version who had broken his heart to the warm, familiar woman he’d pictured having his sons.
“Hey, Danny,” she greeted him, sounding disconcertingly more like the latter.
“What are you doing here?” he blurted, suddenly conscious of all the eyes on them. It was one thing to have to see Christina after all these months, out of the blue, when he was unprepared for it. It was another to have to do it front of-he glanced at Mindy, who was looking at him with wide eyes-well, in front of his colleagues.
“Um … do you mind if we-could we talk somewhere?” Christina asked.
“Okay.” The part of him that didn’t want the audience was suddenly battling with the part of him that didn’t want to be alone with her. “Okay. Let’s, uh, let’s go back in my office.”
He followed her in and closed the door, and they stood there awkwardly for a moment, as he got increasingly frustrated. This is what they’d had lawyers for, so they’d never have to talk to each other directly again.
“What are you doing here?” he repeated.
“I’m sorry to just drop by like this,” she said. “You weren’t returning my calls.”
“I was out of town over the weekend,” Danny said stiffly. “I didn’t know you called.”
“Oh … I thought it was because you still hated my guts.”
She looked so vulnerable just then, and there had been a time when a look like that would have made him reach out to her, but Danny refused to let it get to him. He crossed his arms over his chest, letting the words hang in the air. It wasn’t not true.
“Okay. Well, I deserve that, I guess,” she said quietly. “I know I treated you badly, and I’m sorry about what happened. I’m sorry about everything.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, to mask the fact that the old wound was opening up, right in the middle of his chest where his ability to speak was located. This is what she’d come here for, for an apology, after all this time? Yep, this closure thing was for chumps and masochists, all right.
“You look good. The practice looks like it’s doing really well,” she continued, with an uncertain smile. “How are you, Danny? I was worried about you, after everything. I know you didn’t take it well.”
Danny grunted. How was he supposed to have taken it? And how would she even know? It’s not like she was there. She left.
“Yeah, no, I’m great. I’m over it.”
“Really?”
She sounded hopeful, and what was he supposed to say? Whatever would get her out of his office fastest, he supposed.
“Yeah, sure, why not? Time heals all wounds, right?” Actually, time seemed to be really letting him down here. With her standing in front of him again, the hurt and anger seemed as acute as ever. “Yeah, anyway, I’m fine. I’m dating, I’m out there. I’ve moved on.”
“Oh. That’s good, Danny. I’m glad to hear it. Really.”
She looked genuinely relieved. Well, great, just what he’d wanted-to ease her guilty conscience. Not that he wanted her to think he was still pining for her, either. See? A lose-lose situation.
“Anyone in particular?” Christina asked. “Not that it’s any of my business …”
“Anyone …?” Danny was taken aback for a moment, until he realized Christina was taking him literally about the moving on thing. And he had moved on, several times-he didn’t want her to think he hadn’t. “Oh, yeah, there’s someone. She’s, um …”
Suddenly he was blanking on every woman he knew. Eyepatch. Eyepatch wasn’t a name. “Mindy!” he blurted, too loudly. Loud enough that Mindy probably heard her name, if she was still in the lobby area. Panicked, he threw open the door.
There she was, along with Betsy, Jeremy, and Morgan, who all looked like they’d been caught gossiping or eavesdropping or both.
“Doesn’t anyone have work to do?” He glared at them, before catching Mindy’s eye. “Mindy, do you have a second to come in here?”
“Um, sure?” Mindy agreed uncertainly.
When she had joined them, he closed the door, and Mindy gave him a questioning look and then smiled graciously at Christina. “Hi, I’m Dr. Mindy Lahiri. You must be the famous Christina. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Danny looked nervously between the two of them, wondering how this was going to go. If he could just quickly think of a different reason he had called Mindy into the room-
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Christina was saying meanwhile, extending a hand, which Mindy accepted. “I hope this isn’t too awkward.”
“Awkward?”
“You know, ex-wife meeting new girlfriend. I didn’t even know he was seeing anyone, or that I’d be meeting you today. How long have you and Danny been dating?”
Mindy gave Danny a startled look, and he briefly considered throwing her back out of the office. How would that look, though?
“Three months!” he said quickly instead. He moved to put a hand on Mindy’s back but thought better of it and dropped it back down to his side. “She just looks surprised because she doesn’t think I can remember anniversaries. Three months as of yesterday, right, Min?”
He shot her a quick desperate look, hoping she’d just go along. If this one time, she could manage to be actually be helpful instead of making his life more difficult … as it was, she was probably going to give him hell for this later.
“Oh! Yeah, three months! Right,” Mindy said after a slight delay, and Danny gave her a small grateful smile. “Sorry, I’m just a little slow today. It’s because I was up all night … because of all the sex, you know how it is.”
Too much, Danny tried to convey with his eyes.
Mindy made a small questioning gesture with her hands, like what do you want me do?
Maybe he should take it from here. “Yeah, Mindy and me, that’s happening, so. It’s early, but it’s getting kind of serious, three months in, that’s … yeah, that’s pretty serious. Anyway, I’m good, I’ve moved on, as you can see. Now you know.”
There, was that enough closure? Could she possibly go now?
“I’m really happy for you, Danny, and you, Mindy, you seem … great!” Christina said. She seemed flustered-so maybe she wasn’t so fine with him moving on after all. Served her right for leaving him. What did she think was going to happen?
Christina took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m actually relieved because I have some news to share myself, and this makes it a little easier.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny noticed Mindy stepping slightly closer to him. It was almost like she knew something was coming, which was crazy, because he didn’t.
“Paul … you remember Paul, right?” Christina continued, more nervously.
“I remember Paul,” Danny said through gritted teeth. He remembered finding Paul in bed with his wife.
Mindy moved closer still and her hand bumped up against his.
“Paul and I are getting married. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I didn’t want you to hear from someone else.”
Mindy’s fingers wrapped around his, which was good, because he really needed something to squeeze right now. It was like the turbulence, all over again, nausea and everything. He glanced down at her, and she met his eyes, looking worried.
“That’s great news, isn’t it, Danny … hon?”
“Uh-huh,” he managed, numbly. “Great news.” Mindy stroked her thumb against his hand reassuringly, and he was suddenly profoundly grateful she was there right now, humiliating as this was.
As he was floundering for something to say that he wouldn’t regret later, she turned to Christina and started filling in the awkward silence. “April in New York … that’s such a romantic time to get engaged. Unless he proposed on April Fool’s Day. That would be so not funny. He didn’t do that, did he? Are you sure you’re even engaged?”
“No, no, I’m sure,” Christina said, with a small, confused laugh. She looked about just as relieved as he felt that someone in the room was doing the talking.
“That’s good, that’s so wonderful for you.” Mindy exchanged another glance with him. He shrugged helplessly, and she babbled onward. “Have you started planning yet? Where are you registered? I’ve read that it’s good to register at multiple price points. Ivanka Trump, for example, registered at Tiffany’s and Williams-Sonoma.”
“Oh, it’s early, we haven’t really … and I don’t think we’ll register anywhere. It being a second wedding, you know.”
Christina met his eyes for a moment, looking uncomfortable and genuinely apologetic. That was the thing about Christina-she always managed to look like she cared, even when was hurting you. It made it hard to hate her completely, and not being able to hate her made it hard to be okay with this situation.
“Right … right, I feel you on that, that makes sense,” Mindy was saying, but he’d forgotten what she was referring to. “Okay, well, Danny and I have patients, but we’re really happy for you, and glad you stopped by!”
Oh, thank god. Mindy was getting rid of her for him. He knew there was a good reason he had her come in here.
“Of course … I should be going,” Christina said. “It was good to see you, though, Danny. And I’m glad we got to meet, Mindy.”
Danny nodded, and Christina stepped toward the door, but she turned around again before she was fully out.
Now what?
Christina shook her head, looking embarrassed and emotional. “I’m sorry. I just keep thinking this might be the last time I’m ever going to see you, and it still feels so … I can’t think of the word I want. Unfinished, I suppose.”
“Well, the marriage license said we were going to be together for … let’s see if I can remember … oh yeah, forever,” Danny grumbled. “So, yeah, I’d say that was unfinished.”
Seriously, if she said the word closure, he might have to call security. They weren’t in a storybook. They weren’t going to get a neat little ending, all wrapped in a bow.
“Actually … this is probably really weird, and you can say no, but I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d want to get some dinner sometime?” Christina glanced awkwardly at Mindy, as if she’d just remembered she was there too. “Mindy too, of course. The four of us, maybe!”
“Why?” Danny asked, rocking up onto his toes and then back down again. “Why would we do that?”
Christina shrugged self-consciously. “I know we didn’t leave on the best of terms … but now Paul and I are trying to start a new life together, and it’s difficult with that ugliness hanging over us over how we started. Maybe it would be good for us if we could all sit down over a friendly dinner and leave the past behind. Make a clean break. Is that a terrible idea?”
For a moment, all Danny could do was gape at her. Yes, that was a terrible idea.
“Closure!” Mindy exclaimed excitedly, and he wondered momentarily if he could get security to throw her out of the building. He tried to shake his head at her, but she wasn’t paying attention. “Danny and I were just talking about that a few days ago, how it’s good to have closure so that you can forgive and accept and move forward and all that. I think that would be a great idea. We’d love to come.”
“You would … really?” Christina asked, sounding skeptical even though this was her idea.
“Sure, we can do that, right, Danny?” Before he could protest, she was opening the door and walking Christina out, and he hurried to catch up with them before Mindy could agree to anything stupid. “Do you know that pizza place that Danny likes, not the one where you guys met and carved your names on the table, but the other one, the really nice one?”
Just as he was opening his mouth to nip this thing in the bud, the memory overwhelmed him: a much younger Christina, with long hair and a tight tank top that showed off the tattoo she had on her upper back, tracing her fingers over the letters he’d carved on the tabletop. She had a bit of tomato sauce on the corner of her lip, which he’d used as an excuse to kiss her.
“I think I know which one you’re talking about,” Christina was saying, turning around to shoot Danny a questioning look.
“How about tomorrow, say, 8?” Mindy suggested.
“I think that works for us,” Christina said. “If that’s really okay …”
“Sure, it’s fine. Don’t mind, Danny. He’s just jet-lagged.”
They had reached the elevator door. Mindy pressed the button, and the door opened immediately.
Looking slightly shell-shocked, Christina stepped onto the elevator. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you then?”
“Great. Bye!” Mindy said, almost gleefully.
Danny stared after his ex-wife as the doors shut, realizing too late what had just happened.
“She’s pretty,” Mindy commented. “Taller than I thought she would be.”
Danny glared at her, his mouth open, then grabbed her arm and pulled her back into his office. All of his frustration was still bubbling near the surface, and he was finally alone with someone who didn’t leave him too tongue-tied to fully express it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded as soon as he shut the door.
“God, Danny, could you be a little more grateful? I’m helping you out. I’m playing your smart, sexy doctor girlfriend so that you can rub your success in your engaged ex-wife’s face. This was your idea.”
“This wasn’t my idea.”
She looked at him disbelievingly. “They why did you tell her I was your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. I accidentally told her I’d moved on with someone, and she wanted to know who, and yours was the first name I thought of. Probably because I just talked to you.”
He really hoped she wasn’t going to read too much into that.
“You didn’t think of Alex first? You guys just broke up, like, two weeks ago.”
He glared at her again. “This was not supposed to be an ongoing arrangement or anything. We are not going to dinner with them. No way.”
“Are you kidding me? She’s never going to believe I’m your girlfriend based on that performance. Give me an evening. I’ll bring my A game. She’ll never know what hit her.”
“No! Mindy, this isn’t some low-rent movie where we play dress-up and the music swells and someone falls over.”
“Okay, you’re going to have to narrow it down to something more specific. I have no idea what movie you’re talking about from that description.”
“Mindy. This is my life.”
“And it’s going really well.” Infuriatingly, she put her hand on her hip, and he resisted the urge to physically put it somewhere else. “Anyway, you can’t back out. You told her I was your girlfriend, and I told her we’d be there. Girlfriend-made commitments are binding.”
“Luckily for us, she doesn’t follow Mindy logic. We’ll cancel. I’ll tell her you forgot … we have dinner plans with your parents that night or something.”
“My parents live in Concord.”
“She doesn’t know that. Or, my mom, then.”
“I get to meet your mom?” Mindy seemed oddly interested in that idea. He couldn’t even imagine how that would go, the image was so absurd.
“No. That’s what I’m going to tell her.”
“She’ll know something’s up.”
“She’ll know I don’t want to have dinner with her. Which I don’t.”
“Or, she’ll know you made up a girlfriend so that you would look like you’re over her, when you’re not.”
Danny sighed and rapped his knuckles on his desk in frustration. She was right, it would look like that. Christina was probably already suspicious-he and Mindy hardly made a convincing couple-and cancelling now would just confirm those suspicions. He’d look pathetic. And she’d feel bad about it-worse, she’d feel sorry for him-and he hated that idea more than anything.
He put his hands in his hair and made a face.
“Fine, I’ll think about it. But you’re going to pay for this.”
“I’m the one doing you a favor,” she reminded him.
“If this is what being your friend means, I wouldn’t want to be your enemy.”
She punched him playfully in the arm. “It’ll be good. You’ll see. You’ll feel better after this.”
Somehow, he seriously doubted that.
“Did you feel better after seeing Josh in Sante Fe?”
Mindy tilted her head to one side, considering. “You know, I did. Because I found out how awful he really was, and I realized I’m better off without him, even if he hadn’t had another girlfriend.”
“But you already knew that,” Danny pointed out. “And anyway, that was different. He was addicted to cocaine.”
“You’re right,” she said sympathetically. “They can’t all be drug addicts.”
He actually laughed a little at that.
“Okay, well, we really do have patients.” She put her hand on his arm. “You going to be okay, Danny?”
He looked down at his arm where her hand was-it was the first time she’d touched him since the airplane, or rather, the first time he hadn’t been distracted by Christina-and it took him a moment after he opened his mouth for anything to come out. “Yeah … um, yeah. I’m okay.”
“Good.” She squeezed gently before letting go, then turned to open the door. He stared after her, involuntarily touching the place where her hand had been, and wondering what he had gotten himself into.
***
Danny avoided his coworkers as much as possible over the next two days, spending more time than strictly necessary with his eyes closed and his stethoscope in his ears. There was something about the heartbeats of fetuses-quick and steady and full of potential-and it calmed him, even as it reminded him of what he didn’t have.
In between, he played the Tunnel of Love and Blood Brothers albums on repeat instead of sleeping. By the time he reached Mindy’s door on Tuesday night, he was both keyed up and exhausted.
As he waited for Mindy to open up, he leaned against the doorframe, still having a silent argument with himself over whether he should or shouldn’t go through with this tonight. Basically, he shouldn’t-that was obvious. But somehow, he was here anyway.
Mindy opened her door finally, her hair in giant rollers.
“You’re way early,” she said accusingly. “We have half an hour!”
“I was feeling antsy,” Danny said, moving past her into her apartment. “And I had to see what you’re wearing.”
He hadn’t actually given that any thought, but he didn’t want to admit he was here just because he didn’t want to pace alone in his apartment any longer.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
Her dress had polka dots and a short skirt that flared out at the hips.
“Nothing,” Danny said, lingering on the view of her legs for a moment. “It’s not too bad, actually.”
“Thanks for the ringing endorsement,” she said. “It’s a good thing you rushed over here to save me from embarrassing myself.”
“It’s fine. I like it.” He shrugged sheepishly, choosing to focus on this inconsequential detail instead of talking about anything that mattered. “Do you have anything else?”
“I thought you said you liked it,” she said.
“I do, but tonight you’re playing a part. The ‘smart, sexy doctor girlfriend,’ remember? Polka dots aren’t going to cut it.” He started walking to her closet, and she followed him.
“You have a surprising interest in fashion for a guy who’s never seen Project Runway,” she commented as he flipped through her dresses.
“I just know what looks good on a woman. This.” He pulled out a low-cut red dress that would hug her curves and still show off her legs. “You should wear this.”
She took the hanger from him. “Okay, turn around.”
He faced away from her, hearing the swish of fabric as she took one dress off and put the other one on. It occurred to him this wasn’t the first time he’d been in her closet. He hadn’t been in any other women’s closets since Christina, and he hadn’t really spent much time in hers either. It was certainly smaller than this one.
“We should prepare, maybe,” he said.
“Prepare?”
Hearing the sound of a zipper, he turned around in time to help her zip it up to the top. He smoothed the fabric across her shoulders and snatched his hands away as she turned around.
For a moment, he forgot what he’d been saying.
“Better?” she asked.
“You look great. Aside from the rollers, but I assume you have a plan there.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Thank you, Danny. Now what do you think we should do to prepare?”
“Oh. Since we have a little time, I was thinking maybe we should just make sure we know details that people in relationships would know.” Mindy nodded as she moved out of the closet, and he followed her out to the bathroom and stood in the hallway while she started messing with her hair. “It’s probably most important that you know things about me, because she’ll know those things.”
“Okay. Quiz me,” Mindy said, as she took the rollers out. The long black hair fell down her back, and it wasn’t so much curly as just … really pretty looking.
“Oh, okay. My mom’s name-”
“Is Alice. She was a hotel maid, now retired, and your brother’s Richie. He’s a carpenter. Next.”
“Right.” Danny was momentarily surprised she remembered all that. “And your brother’s name is Rishi, the rapper/Harvard student.”
“You don’t get points for knowing that. You met him.”
“This isn’t about points,” he said, although he wondered fleetingly if they were keeping score, who would win. “Do I know your parents’ names?”
“Shreya and Rahul. They’re both doctors.”
“Shree-ah and Ra-hool,” he repeated carefully, even though he doubted that was going to come up. It seemed good to know. “Okay, um … food preferences. We’ll be at a restaurant, so that might be important.”
“Easy. You like thick bread, salty meats, cheeses that don’t have funny names. Onions and peppers, yes. Mushrooms, no.” He met her eyes in the mirror. “What? You order a lot of sandwiches to the office.”
“It’s almost like we’re actually dating,” he joked.
“Or like we’re actually friends,” she tossed back, and there was something about the casual way she said it that made him feel momentarily better-still like he was going into battle, but with an ally. Of sorts.
She put her lipstick on and puckered her lips briefly in the mirror. “Okay, almost ready.”
Mindy ducked into her closet again and brought out a couple shoeboxes. First she put on a very sexy but completely ridiculous pair, which put her almost at the same level as him. Standing in the hallway next to him, she looked at their reflection in the bathroom mirror, considering.
“No, you’re not tall enough,” she said, discarding them and sliding on the lower-heeled contents of the other box. She glanced at their reflection again. “Perfect.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly.
“I just like to be shorter than my dates. It makes me feel like the girl.”
“The fact that you’re the one in heels doesn’t make you feel like the girl? This isn’t even a real date.”
“The shoes don’t know that, though.”
“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
“These will be easier to walk in anyway.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Danny muttered, wandering away into her kitchen. He opened the cupboard where she kept the liquor and took out a bottle, pouring himself a shot.
“You going to be okay?” Mindy asked, making her concerned face again. He’d been getting that a lot since Christina had showed up the day before.
He held up the bottle. “Liquid courage. So what made you think it was a good idea to pick one of my favorite restaurants?”
She furrowed her brow. “Oh … I just thought you’d want to be somewhere you’re comfortable. Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“It’s too late. They’re meeting us.” Danny shook his head and took another gulp. “But now I won’t be able to eat there without thinking of this night. There’ll be associations.”
“Oh. Ohhh. I should have thought of that. I’ll fix it, okay? Hold on.” She whipped out her phone and did something.
“What did you just do?”
“I fixed it. I just texted Christina and told her I meant the Italian place in the 300th block, not the 400th.”
“How do you even have Christina’s number?”
She grinned at him. “From your phone. Girlfriend privileges.”
“Hey. Don’t think you can get away with that now.”
She shrugged her shoulders, smirking cutely. For some reason that made him think of her actual boyfriend.
“So, what does Casey think about this, us going out tonight? What’d you tell him?”
“I told him the truth. He’s fine with it. He doesn’t get jealous, remember? Something about God and faith.”
“Sounds nice,” Danny mumbled. He leaned against the counter, the liquor making him feel pensive. “So you think I might need some closure about Christina,” he said.
Mindy took the bottle from his hand and put it away. She looked at him for a moment, her smirk gone. “You need something, right?” she said quietly, leaning against the counter next to him. “It’s been a while, and it seems like you might not be completely over her, is all.”
Danny nodded his head slowly, folding his arms. “I just don’t think about her mostly, and that seems to work.”
“Yeah, like it worked with Alex?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to go there? You’re going to bring up Alex?”
“No, you’re right. Sorry,” she said, wincing.
He thought for a moment. “I suppose you think if I were over Christina, I wouldn’t have kept her a secret from Alex. But you’re wrong. Because I wasn’t keeping her a secret. It just never came up.”
“Oh, you never had a conversation about past relationships, or she never wondered why a handsome doctor was still single in his 40s?”
“I’m in my 30s,” he corrected her, exasperated.
“Late 30s.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Okay, maybe, I don’t know … there were times when it could have come up.”
“So you’re saying I’m right.”
“No, I’m saying … I don’t know.” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think she liked me much anyway.”
“Of course she liked you. She just didn’t like that you lied to her.”
“I think she liked my apartment,” he mumbled, glancing at his watch. “Anyway, if we’re doing this, we’d better get going.”
Mindy didn’t immediately move, and he turned his head to find her watching him intently. “Are we doing this?”
She was actually asking. Oh, suddenly he had a choice?
Danny shrugged and made his way to the door, already having resigned himself. And maybe she was right, how should he know? He’d been thinking about this for almost two days straight, and he had no idea.
Mindy followed him, and he held up her coat for her before shrugging into his own jacket, then held the door open as she walked through. She raised her eyebrows at him, impressed, and he shrugged-if they were going to play at being in a relationship, they might as well start practicing now.
“I think this’ll be good. You’ll see,” Mindy said once they were outside, but with a lack of bravado this time, and it didn’t do much to inspire confidence in him about what they were doing. But when they reached the sidewalk she reached out and squeezed his hand briefly in friendly encouragement, and it was nice.
When she withdrew the contact almost as quickly as she’d offered it, he reached for her hand back and held onto it, defiantly. She glanced at him sideways, and he thought he noticed a slight catch in her breathe, but she didn’t do anything to take it away again.
“Turbulence,” he mumbled by way of explanation, and she nodded, accepting that.
It was the third time in as many days that he and Mindy had held hands-he wondered what Casey would think if he knew that. But there was something reassuring and comfortable about it, and he didn’t want to give it too much thought.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Mindy cleared her throat. “So this Paul guy. You’ve met him before?”
“Met is putting kind of a positive spin on it,” Danny said.
She glanced at him curiously. “How do you know him?”
He grunted. “I know him as the guy who broke up my marriage.”
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared. “Danny! This is the guy she cheated on you with while you were married?”
He nodded.
“And now she’s marrying him?” It seemed like a rhetorical question, so he just stood there. “Scumbag,” she said, putting her hand on her hip, but for once the disapproval it indicated didn’t seem to be directed at him. “How did you find out?”
“I walked in on them.”
She whipped out her phone again, and he put a hand on her arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m pulling the plug on this, Danny. I’ll say you have an emergency C-section. That’s the advantage of being a doctor-you get to get out of stuff like this.”
“You thought this was a good idea,” he pointed out.
“That was before I knew this! Why didn’t you ever say anything? How do I know what kind of bread you like, but I don’t know this?”
“I guess I don’t usually put information about who slept with my wife on my sandwich order.”
“We’re friends, Danny, so you have to tell me stuff now. Anyway, we can’t have a friendly dinner with the scumbag who broke up your marriage. What was I thinking? I should never have agreed to this without talking to you first.” She lowered her voice, almost talking to herself now. “Casey’s right, I really can be thoughtless and self-involved sometimes.”
Danny flinched. “Casey sounds like he might be a self-righteous prick. You’re trying to help a friend. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“He is sometimes. But he’s a funny, charming self-righteous prick, and I find that really confusing.”
Danny nodded. “I get that.”
She held up the phone. “It’s up to you. Say the word, and I’ll cancel.”
Danny made a face, turning half away from her. “She’ll know something’s up, that I chickened out or something. She’s smart like that. Perceptive.”
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what she thinks, Danny.”
That was true. And yet … one of the worst things about what had happened was that he’d never gotten to talk to her-never gotten to find out what had happened. They had all these plans, and she’d just thrown them away, suddenly and with no explanation. Why would she do that to him? Why for this guy? Who even was this woman he’d been married to all those years?
If he walked away now, he’d never know. He needed to go-not for closure, closure was for wimps and Don Henley fans-just to know.
He couldn’t believe he was going to say this.
“I think we should do it. I think … I don’t know, maybe you were right. I should do this.”
He just hoped she wasn’t going to rub it in his face.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah … I mean, no I’m not sure. But yeah.”
They started walking again, and this time she was the one who reached for his hand first.
As they approached the pizza place, Mindy suddenly stopped and tugged his arm toward her. “Quick, I want you to put your hand on my hip and lean down toward me. Whisper something in my ear.”
“Why, what’s happening?”
“I’m doing you a favor, silly.”
Confused, he did as she said and leaned in close to her ear. “Are they nearby or something?”
“I can see them coming toward us,” she murmured. “Look like you’re really into me.” She giggled suddenly, tossing her head back like he’d just said something really funny or dirty or something. He did his best not to turn around and look.
“Danny,” she said more loudly, in an exaggerated sing-songy voice. Then she pulled him by the edges of his coat so they were nose to nose and kissed him flirtatiously on the cheek. His fingers unconsciously flew up to the spot, and she made a show of wiping away her lipstick with her thumb.
“You okay?” she asked more quietly, right next to his ear. He nodded, not sure yet if he should be annoyed at her for making him more flustered than ever, or grateful for the distraction.
Mindy pretended to notice their dinner companions for the first time, and he turned around to face them. “There they are! Hello again, Christina, it’s good to see you. And you must be Paul.”
She sounded perfectly friendly to the untrained ear, but Danny was pretty sure he could detect an edge of iciness to her tone that hadn’t been there the previous morning. She squeezed his hand, and he smiled at her in spite of everything, once again surprised at how glad he was that she was there. Not that he’d be in this situation at all without her, but still.
Christina smiled uncertainly, looking nervously between Danny and Paul.
Danny sized up the other man. He was taller, which was annoying, but he had glasses that didn’t even look like they were prescription. It was hard to take a guy like that seriously.
Paul extended his hand to Danny. “Good to see you again, Danny,” he said stiffly.
Danny shook the offered hand. “Good to see you clothed this time, Paul.”
Christina and Paul exchanged an uncomfortable glance. “Shall we go in?” Paul said.
“After you,” Danny said mock-graciously.
He held the door for Mindy, who looked like she was trying not to giggle behind her hand. Her eyes flashed with approval, and he smiled at her.
Maybe this was going to be okay. This was the thing he had feared the most, and it was in progress, and it was okay so far.
Two minutes in.
Continue to Part 2